SR Geek Picks: Action Movie Mullets, ‘Doctor Who’ Plot Twists & More

Welcome to Screen Rant’s “Geek Picks,” where we collect the finest movie-related geekery from around the Web. Today you’ll find a Muppet Christmas film; Shia LaBeouf directing a new short film; 10 huge Moffat plot twists that pose bigger questions; and Christopher Lee’s Christmas single. All that and more on this edition of SR’s Geek Picks!

If you listen to the wrong kind of people (cultural pessimists, that is), every year is the worst year in cinema, at least since the last one. But as we learned last year, high highs tend to come with low lows. In a year that saw the release of such instant classics as 12 Years a Slave, Gravity, Inside Llewyn Davis, and many more, there were also scads of terrible contributions to the greater world of movie-going. High highs, people, and low lows. Let’s try to make next year alittle better, or at least let’s aim to populate it with satires that actually try to be funny, sequels that aren’t a disgrace to their franchise history, and nothing even remotely resembling inAPPropriate Comedy 2.

While there were certainly more than a mere thirteen bad movies that hit the big screen this year (and, yes, we’re more than eager to see your contributions in the comments), here are thirteen that stuck out to us in the most unforgettable of ways. We’ve come to bury them, and certainly not to praise them, so here are thirteen films that we’re giddily throwing in the grave.

The Muppets – A Muppet Family Christmas (1987)

Peter O’Toole was incapable of playing casual parts. Regal in bearing, flamboyant in behavior, and intelligent in expression, he was the kind of actor who immediately brought grandeur to the lowliest of characters and the most minor of movies.

Vulture has a journey through some of his best, as well as some of his most underappreciated, performances.

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HowardCantour.com (Film by Shia LaBeouf)

This is the story of Howard Cantour. A warrior, a film critic. He lives his live vicariously through movies and in movies. But Howard is no sell out, he’s says it like he sees it. This is a story of his life and struggle about reviewing his film hero’s movie.

‘The Time of the Doctor’ is nearly upon us, as his fobwatch approaches Twelve. Matt Smith’s tenure in the TARDIS is all but complete, and as we look to the future with Peter Capaldi, it’s also a time to look back at the Eleventh Doctor. But if you’re looking for sugary nostalgia here, I’ll direct you now to the “X Reasons to Miss Matt Smith” articles. What about all the questions we still want answers to?

Moffat loves a plot twist. He’s known for them: he’s brought the lead characters from both his big dramas back from what was almost certainly their death scene, and that’s just the tip of the iceberg, twist-wise.

Every twist creates a fissure in story-telling and we’re hoping that Moffat will paper over the cracks in ‘The Time of the Doctor’. Here are ten twists that left gaping questions; some of them will be resolved at Christmas, some of them we’ll never know.